Gridiron60 Posted May 15 Report Posted May 15 Graham Boys & Girls secure regular season champions for SWD. Host SWD Tournament next week. tornado99 1 Quote
tornado99 Posted May 15 Report Posted May 15 15 hours ago, Gridiron60 said: Graham Boys & Girls secure regular season champions for SWD. Host SWD Tournament next week. Congratulations! In my first year in watching high school soccer, JV specifically, a school’s ability to emphasize a particular sport in a season is critical to success. What I’m about to say is not critical, but an observation. Graham obviously had the best athletes on the pitch compared to the others. My experience with what I know at Richlands, is one of the better athletes being spread amongst sports, particularly divided between baseball/softball and soccer. I’ve not seen much emphasis on track and field, so there may be exceptions. I’m aware that Graham typically struggles with baseball and softball, but WOW soccer is good. Since soccer has entered the region as a sport, particularly as a spring sport, baseball has not been as strong at Richlands. While softball has a recent title, and is successful, soccer has siphoned away a few of those girls. Except for the largest of schools (Abingdon), it is really hard to be exceptional at both. I’m sure there’s a lot of WHY’s at each place, but just sharing the observation. Great job by whoever is in charge of the soccer program at Graham and the players. Gridiron60 1 Quote
Gridiron60 Posted May 16 Author Report Posted May 16 @tornado99 George Aiello has coached boys’ team for well over a decade. He really has built a strong program. The players have most likely played together since they were younger in the East River Soccer League. I’m not sure if any play the travel ball circuit. Cambel Fix plays travel soccer but did not play for Graham this season. I heard he wanted to focus on travel soccer and strength & conditioning, camps for football. He’s a remarkable soccer player. tornado99 1 Quote
tornado99 Posted May 16 Report Posted May 16 15 minutes ago, Gridiron60 said: @tornado99 George Aiello has coached boys’ team for well over a decade. He really has built a strong program. The players have most likely played together since they were younger in the East River Soccer League. I’m not sure if any play the travel ball circuit. Cambel Fix plays travel soccer but did not play for Graham this season. I heard he wanted to focus on travel soccer and strength & conditioning, camps for football. He’s a remarkable soccer player. I had heard that about Fix. I wondered to myself if soccer was almost year-round in youth around Bluefield. It’s typically only in the fall at the youth level in Richlands. I had assumed that football players were discouraged from playing spring sports besides track in order to focus on football, but to my surprise several football players were on the JV. They were much more athletic as well according to the eye test compared to all the other schools. The G-men are fortunate to have both coaching and talent. Quote
Gridiron60 Posted May 16 Author Report Posted May 16 41 minutes ago, tornado99 said: I had heard that about Fix. I wondered to myself if soccer was almost year-round in youth around Bluefield. It’s typically only in the fall at the youth level in Richlands. I had assumed that football players were discouraged from playing spring sports besides track in order to focus on football, but to my surprise several football players were on the JV. They were much more athletic as well according to the eye test compared to all the other schools. The G-men are fortunate to have both coaching and talent. As far as I know the players aren’t discouraged from competing in other sports. I think a couple play baseball, several soccer, and maybe a couple do track. tornado99 1 Quote
tornado99 Posted May 16 Report Posted May 16 53 minutes ago, Gridiron60 said: As far as I know the players aren’t discouraged from competing in other sports. I think a couple play baseball, several soccer, and maybe a couple do track. Yeah. Seeing those on the pitch dispelled that rumor. They had a good combination of skilled soccer players as well as all-around athletes. Quote
Gridiron60 Posted May 23 Author Report Posted May 23 Saturday SWD Tournament Championship Boys Graham vs Marion (Championship) 3rd Place Game Tazewell vs VH Girls Graham vs Richlands 3rd Place Game VH vs Marion Quote
Gridiron60 Posted May 24 Author Report Posted May 24 Graham boys and girls win tournament championship. Quote
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